


Everything Changes

by dangerusliasons



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-07
Updated: 2010-07-07
Packaged: 2017-10-10 10:45:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dangerusliasons/pseuds/dangerusliasons





	Everything Changes

_but everything changes___

xxxxx

Everything changes. This, Emily Prentiss knows far too well. For all of her life she has tried to run from change and find some sort of sanity in her life. But it always ends up being something that inevitably will blow up in her face--no matter how hard she fights it. Aaron Hotchner, or "Hotch" as everyone calls him, is very different. He's seen his share of death, and pain and suffering and has lived through it all. He is anything but intact, both mentally and physically. The wounds of this war, however imperceptible are there if you look hard enough; and he hardly lets anyone get that close. Something Emily has learned is more of a self-preservation for him. He's been hurt so much. You can see it in is eyes and you can _feel_ his pain.

Emily has a pain that she carries within herself, as well. She has never verbalized her pain, her emotions, but has always kept them locked tightly away. Always afraid of what might happen, if she let someone in, let someone that close. In her job, she has to let people in a little but she always keeps them behind a shield, her shield, and tries desperately to hold it all together. Sometimes it works, during the day she can keep a tight hold on herself and her emotions, but at night that's when the feelings come out. All the hurt, pain, and all of her emotions run free. She sits quietly--but says nothing. The emotions come with the help of alcohol mostly, but sometimes she will sit on the steps and just cry. She lets everything from the day, or days, wash over her in a torrent of emotions and she is glad no one can see her in her own private misery. On the outside she's jovial and playful, on the inside she struggles every day with the things she's done and the things she's had to do.

Sometimes she'll catch Hotch gazing at her through the windows of his office. His arms will be crossed as if he's surveying the entire team and she shudders, and waits a moment before going back to what she'd been doing. Hotch's eyes are the only eyes that can pierce that well kept facade she shows the world. He understands her pain; not that the other's don't, but Hotch.....is _Hotch_. He takes everyone's pain and makes it his own. He carriers a far heavier burden than the rest of them, on a daily basis. He protects them and fights for them, and sometimes against them. But Hotch is _always_ there.

Emily feels safe with him, safer than any other man she's ever known. She can feel his eyes on her, even when she isn't looking in his direction. It seems he's constantly watching her, and vice versa.

So maybe, Emily thinks, everything changes for the better. Instead of always for the worst.


End file.
